Hemlock
Farms was originally a magnificent wildlife sanctuary with rolling hills
and boundless beauty purchased by the William Brewster Family in 1927.
Over the next few decades the Brewster's purchased other contiguous
properties to increase their holdings to over 45oo acres. In
addition, the family built interior roads, the main house, stables,
lakes and other amenities for the many family activities. The
Steer Barn was one of the last buildings erected to house the steers he
kept on the dairy farm. Other Brewster buildings included the
milking barn, carpenter shop, ice house, garages, staff cottages and
guest houses. The family called the retreat "Camp Hemlock" and did
much entertaining over the years with family friends and business
associates.

It has been widely
reported that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Great Britain's
Winston Churchill met at the Brewster estate
during
World War II. While Rossevelt and Churchill had many secret
meetings and considered each other close friends, the two world leaders
corresponded almost on a daily basis during the war and had great mutual
admiration for one another. They had many secret meetings that
place on war ships in the middle of the ocean, at secret island
locations and at the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York, but there is
no documentation they had ever met in the Pocono's.

The Brewster family
owned the "George M. Brewster & son, General Contractors" and was
involved in huge construction projects in New York and surrounding area,
including construction work on the roadbed of the George Washington
Bridge,
the
approaches leading to the Lincoln Tunnel, sections of the New Jersey
Turnpike, as well as work on the Scranton/Wilkes Barre International
Airport in Avoca. Locally, the family business built
most of Route 402 in Pike County. The Brewster family knew
construction and spared no expense when building Camp Hemlock with
native stone and local timbers. To provide access for his
amphibious plane Brewster dredged Hemlock Pond, built the dam and
created Lower Lake as it is know today. When the family business
began having problems in the late 50's and early 60's the estate was put
on the market. It didin't take long for Western Heritage
Properties Limitied from Ontarion, Canada to purchase the 4500 acre
property in January 1963 for $700K.
more

In June 1973, the
developers turned over many amenities to the HFCA. in photo from
left to right Home Smith VP, Dick Muti, Home Smith CEO, Ray Tower, HFCA
Secy Norm Welton, Atty M. Davis Baker, HFCA Advisor, and HFCA President
Shelton Wilshinksy.